The Cambridge Companion to Music and Fascism

Music played various roles under the fascist regimes of the twentieth century. This book provides detailed overviews of musical life in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany alongside case studies from other regimes and situations. It enables readers to look beyond stereotypes and engage with fresh interdisciplinary approaches to the topic.

The first book in the English language to take a comparative look at the various roles played by all kinds of music and musicians in the fascist regimes of the twentieth century. It provides detailed overviews of musical life in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and identifies and challenges some of the stereotypes that became ingrained over the latter half of the twentieth century. Alongside comparative studies drawn from the German and Italian examples, the book presents case studies from a variety of regimes and situations. It analyses and compares numerous aspects of fascism (ideology, thought, practice, policy) in their interfaces with music and musicians across the twentieth century. Its broad range of topics expands the reader's horizons beyond a debate on 'music and totalitarianism' currently too often restricted to Stalinism on the one hand and Nazism on the other.